Thursday’s Thoughts, With Coffee! #16

Good morning everyone on this dull, cloudy and very windy Thursday! The birds are singing loudly from the trees right now which really brightens up that dull look out there. Plus, those bright yellows and reds really stand out, kind of glowing like lights in all the trees. There are at least 64 Evening grosbeaks this morning, and over 30 Purple finches.

There are fewer juncos around this morning though, probably only around 100 today. I expect that will increase as the day moves along. There is another snowstorm on the way and should hit us around noon today, dropping about 10 inches (25cm) or so, of snow before the storm moves on tomorrow.

They were swinging so wildly on this feeder, it was hard to get a pic of this Evening Grosbeak and his friend.

And it will be cooler again until Monday or Tuesday, so this snow will stay around for a few days again. Oh well. It will melt. And spring will finally arrive and stay with us. Hopefully this will be the last snowstorm of the winter and warmer weather will stay with us after this. Hard to tell though. Spring is very unpredictable in our area.

A Sharp-shinned Hawk just swooped through, scaring all the birds. It did not catch anything which is good. But it will likely come back again since there are lots of birds here. They are a small hawk, but can eat one or two birds a day. The birds certainly scattered quickly when that hawk showed up! The juncos are starting to return now, as are the Pine siskins and Purple finches.

One of the many Purple finches, and they are nearly all males.

Might take a little longer before the grosbeaks come back. They are more cautious. They are also bigger and perhaps make a better target for that hawk. The clouds seem to be getting darker all the time. Speaking of dark, that big black bear was back very early this morning, around 2am. I can actually feel the vibration of him stomping on the deck while I am inside. Amazing.

I do not mind if it comes around at night, I just want it to stay away during the day. If it decides to start coming during the day, then I will have to stop feeding the birds. And I would like to keep feeding until at least mid May. I used to feed all summer, which is nice. That way I get to see the young birds once they are flying around.

Another male Purple finch, also swinging wildly on that same feeder.

Besides, it is just nice to have the birds around all summer. And it does increase the number of species around in the summer, which is also nice as it gives more opportunities for photos. There are still a lot of birds on my “wanted” list for getting photos. Hopefully I can add a few more this year. Well, guess that is all for today, thank you for reading. Have a wonderful day and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

©2023 Steve McLeod.